A bone-numbing Arctic blast drove temperatures down Friday to 11 below in parts of the Midwest and Northeast, closing schools to spare children from freezing at bus stops and prompting police to keep a watchful eye out for the homeless.

Mother Nature on Friday continued to mix it up in Illinois by following snow storms and blasts of Arctic air earlier in the week with freezing rain, then fog and rapidly rising temperatures that threatened flash flooding.

The United Auto Workers ratified a four-year contract with Mitsubishi Motors North America on Saturday that calls for employees at a central Illinois plant to take pay cuts in exchange for job security.